Spitfire
by heyJason
Summary: A young man joins the Fireflies.
1. Chapter 1

So this is it. This is how I die. Not in a warm bed. Not with someone special by my side, no not like that at all. I should have known this would happen. I figured that sign had been there for years. But I didn't do what it said, I didn't "keep out" and now the things that were in there are closing in on me. The only question left is what gives out first. My heart pounding in my chest or the hinges on this door. I keep looking for an open doorway but it's of no use. I can't focus my sight with the sounds of the infected scratching and clawing a few inches away. If I'm lucky their screams will be the last thing that I hear.


	2. Chapter 2

I can see my mother sitting there flipping through that old photo album. She's only a little child in these photos but she knows every last person in them. She always tells stories about her grandfather and the adventures they got into back on the farm. She tells these stories even though they hurt her a little each time. The pictures slide and find a new resting place each time she closes the album. I watch her as she seemingly drifts past me into the kitchen. A sharp pain in my arm draws my attention away from her. I open up my eyes to see a make shift tent surrounding me. What the hell? The pain in my arm comes back into focus. A long plastic tube is coming out of it. A gust of wind ruffles the sides of the tent. I look underneath the blanket; I don't have any clothes on. I plop my head back onto the pillow. My legs are sore and my stomach is uneasy. Sleep slowly starts to reel me back in before a couple of voices break through the silence. "I need more supplies; how am I supposed to do my job if I have nothing to treat anyone with" says a woman's voice in the distance. The conversation is an unfriendly one at best. "The top priority is to keep everyone safe, we can't keep looking for supplies every time we run out." Coming from the tone of his voice it sounds like he is in charge. The place falls silent as they enter my room. Neither one of them says a word while entering. Her hair is up while her head is down, too busy scanning through a stack of papers to be bothered with anything else. Meanwhile the man with the well-kept beard keeps his steely eyes on me the entire time. After a while she turns around and places a hand on my forehead. I had forgotten what the human touch feels like. "I'm glad your awake" she says through her southern accent. "When we found you, you were dehydrated beyond belief." She looks at me expecting a response but with the big guy in the corner staring a hole in me I can't come up with anything. "It's all right" she says as she sits down in a chair beside the bed. She continues "how about we start with your name can you tell us that?" They both look at me without blinking an eyelid. "Um" I say before choking on my own tongue. "Alex." She breathes a sigh of relief before continuing on "and how old are you Alex?" I tell her sixteen even though that's not true. The questions continue until I ask one of my one. "So how did you find me?" The large man uncrosses his arms and says "son I saw you running down the street like you were a rabbit at a dog race." He lets out a quick laugh before continuing "you're pretty fast I'll give you that." Several questions run through my mind but I hesitate to speak another word. "Do you think you could get out of bed and stand up?" she asks while the vein in her forehead throbs. "Um, sure" I reply with my voice cracking. The sheets on the bed crinkle as I reposition myself. I slide my feet towards her. They watch silently while showing no signs of giving me any assistance at all. I would have never expected what I felt next. It was not the ability to stand or the disbelief that I was okay, it was the feel of the dirt and patchy grass on the bottom of my bare feet. It's been so long since I've had this feeling. I forgot how your feet sink into the ground if only just a little bit. During this small epiphany I've failed to notice their attention being drawn away. It isn't until she races away from me that I notice something else is going on. A commotion is happening just beyond the tent. I slowly follow the man and woman out and see what is going on.

A couple of battered and bruised young men leave the scene while the smell of dirt and sweat lingers upon them. "So what's the situation here" the doctor asks in a controlled manner. A baritone voice booms from a small Hispanic male. "We have an elder female, approximate age sixty, she seems to have suffered a gunshot to the right hip, she has lost a lot of blood." The doctor doesn't hesitate, "I'll need an IV, antibiotics, a blood bag, morphine and some bandages, but first I need to take a look at the wound to see what the damage is." As soon as she places her hand on the woman's side the elderly woman passes out. The doctor's clean hands quickly become covered in blood. "What's the situation doctor?" asks the big guy. "Well it seems that the bullet passed cleanly through her but she has lost a lot of blood and her wound is not looking good I may need to perform surgery if I can't stop the bleeding." The Hispanic male starts to enter the room with the supplies but is stopped by the big guy. "What are you doing Roy?" she asks standing over the patient. "We're not using all these supplies on her?" the big guy says. "Don't start this crap I can save her." He looks her dead in the eyes, "Tina, we both know that saving her is a maybe at best, we're running out of supplies and I don't like to be the one to say this but what good is saving an elderly woman's life to us." Tina puts her head down while Roy continues "we have to make tough choices, we only need to save people who can return the favor and help us out with our cause." He looks toward me "people like Alex over here." That seems to infuriate her even more "and what is our cause anymore, to just save the ones who can fight and kill even more people!" The room is silent for a few moments, Tina straightens her white coat leaving bloody prints on it and walks towards the exit which is beside me. She pauses for a second to look me directly in the eyes, "welcome to the Fireflies."


	3. Chapter 3

A few weeks go by and now I've gotten used to the routine of the job. I keep lookout during the day, just outside of the camp. They trained me the best they could on how to shoot, I only fired a couple of rounds though, they really couldn't spare the bullets. I haven't had to fire at a person or infected yet and I don't plan on it either. A long time ago I was warned about joining the military and the Fireflies that's why I lied about my age. I'm really eighteen but by the time you turn sixteen you usually have to join something. My mother wanted to keep me out of it so we lied about my age and I kept it up when I was by myself. I figured once they brought me here it wouldn't matter either way. Most of the people here seem to be good though. Hector the hispanic male I met on my first day here, seems to be proud of what we are doing here. He says the Fireflies are holding humanity together. I don't know if that is true or not, all I seem to do here is walk around in circles all day with a rifle laying across my chest. At lunch I get to see the only semi-friend that I have here. Lewis who works at the small kitchen that is setup here. I usually try and get him to sneak me some extra food but most of the time he doesn't. He said he joined the Fireflies because he didn't know what else to do. I guess neither one of us really had a choice.

How they found us I don't know I was careful I'm always careful. I can't see them though I can see their shadows flickering in through the sealed windows. Their feet stomping on the wooden porch. Their growls growing so loud that it is hard to think. "What do we do?" I ask my mother. She puts one finger to her lips urging me to be quiet. I think to myself it's a little late for that. Slowly but surely the wood boarded over the windows starts to give way. The hinges loosen as the doorframe starts to split. One hand then two sneak their way into our home. My mother and I stand there in the living room watching all of this unfold too shocked and frightened to do anything about it. It isn't until one of the infected is halfway in before we start to head for the back door. I'm scared to open it fearing more of them are waiting for us on the other side. She places her hand on my back "it's okay open it." I do and take a look before stepping outside. It's early evening and the backyard looks clear. I breathe a small sigh of relief. Just as I turn around to lead her out that's when they grab her. That's when they always grab her. Night after night I turn around and they always get to her. The sound of her screaming in pure agony, the sound of her left arm snapping backwards at the elbow. I wake up in a cold sweat. "Well there you are champ I was just about to wake you" says Tina standing beside my bed. "I'm going to need your help today, Roy said they came across some medical supplies a few days ago but the place was crawling with infected so they had to leave it behind." I wipe the sweat from my forehead expecting some sort of sympathy from here. "Roy and Hector are off on a search party, apparently one of his men has gone missing and they might not be back for a while so." She sits down on the bed next to me "I know it's risky but we need those supplies and I'm sick of being cooped up here and we need somebody who knows what to get so who better then myself." She pats me on the leg "so get your pants on and I'll get a few of the others and we'll head out before anyone notices." It seems like a bad idea, to put the only doctor that we have in danger. Against my better judgment I put on my pants and place the Firefly pendant around my neck. Lucky for me they already had a spare Alex pendant just lying around. Except the other Alex was a girl and her last name was Maes not Taylor. I asked them but they won't tell me what happened to her. As soon as I meet with the others we head out. We're heading to an abandoned nursing home. Apparently they use to keep old people there when their families could no longer take care of them. The military later turned it into a small camp before leaving it for good. I take the back of the line with the same rifle across my chest. Exhaustion sets in quickly and my stomach turns into knots. The trail leads us away from the town and into a wooded area. After an hour we exit the woods and make our way down a single lane road. The road is infected with potholes as far as the eye can see. It's not long until we reach the place. The weeds in front of the building are waist high. Both glass doors leading into the building are busted with blood stains on the pieces of broken glass. The lead man Henry and I enter the building first while the others wait outside. As soon as we enter we hear an infected. My first instinct is to hide behind Henry. "I see it, it's not a problem" he says. We walk closer to it, it's an infected female. She is trapped underneath an overturned desk. Both of her arms are pinned underneath herself. Henry violently smashes the bottom of his boot against its skull. She stops moving. Henry nods his head for us to keep going. We check the rooms and everything seems to be okay. The others come in and Tina shifts through what is left. We fill one bag up with medical supplies and are ready to leave. "Did any one check that?" Tina points to a corner of the room. Dammit I think to myself. "Alex did you check that?" asks Henry. This was my room to check and somehow I didn't see the closet. "You better go check it out" he says. I think to myself what's the point we got the medicine let's just go. He nods his head for me to check it out. My footsteps echo as I make my way closer. My left hand shakes as I reach out. I fumble the rifle trying to check if my finger is on the trigger without looking. The door opens and nothing but regular dust comes out. I choke and try to regain my breath before that sound overtakes us. That heart stopping screech and clicking sound. No one moves a muscle. "Where is it?" Tina whispers. Everyone tiptoes out of the room and into the hallway. It hard to hear anything with my heart pounding in my ears. We slowly make our way down the hallway. SMACK! against the door at the end of the hall. "It's locked, that was the first door that I checked" says Henry. More pounding, screeching and clicks comes from behind that door. Our pace quickens as we make our way outside. The breeze welcomes us back to safety.

Back into camp I carry the bag with the medicine into Tina's makeshift office. "Thank you so much Alex, this will really help us out." I don't know what to say to her I'm just glad we made it back in one piece. "A lot of the medicine that we find is too old to be useful but I think we might be able to do something with what we got today." She starts to pat me on the shoulder but changes her mind and instead walks back behind her small desk. "You know if you ever need a favor, you can always ask me" she says. As soon as I hear those words I know what I want from her. I have been wanting to ask someone but I could never figure out how and I figured no one would know anything about him. "Actually" I start to say. "Uh" I hesitate on whether or not to ask. "Say it" she says. "Is there any way to find out about someone who is a Firefly or maybe was a Firefly?" I twiddle my fingers nervously. "Maybe" she says. "Really" I say surprised she would say anything helpful. "Yes but we haven't created any new records in a long time." I take a seat in front of her desk. "I know it's probably a long shot but I would like to know about the man who saved my life" I say while trying to not choke on my words. "We do have some files here; we didn't want to keep all of our eggs in one basket." She takes a seat behind her desk. "I know we have lost a lot of records of the years, certain places get overrun or left behind so I'm sure our record keeping is not what it used to be." She puts her hands on the desk "a decent number of files came with me when I was relocated here." She continues "in fact if Marlene were to see the state that we're in now I'm sure she wouldn't be happy about it." I interrupt her "who is Marlene?" She smirks "she's the leader of the Fireflies, I'm surprised you haven't heard of her?" I shake my head "no, not that I can recall." Leaning back in her chair she continues "well you might meet her one day she's always moving from one place to another, we sort of grew up together or at least we came up in the Fireflies together." A short sigh and then she says "I thought things were going pretty well here until Roy took over, it seems like things have been going downhill ever since." A quiet moment is held between us before I continue "May I look at the files." She gives out a quiet laugh "no but I can search through them for you and if the file's really old it might have his picture with it, so what's the name?" Well here goes nothing I guess "I don't know his last name but his first name is Tommy."


	4. Chapter 4

Two days later Roy recruits myself and a few others to go out and continue to search for William, the missing person. The story is they went out on a supply run and they were separated when a pack of infected spotted them. Apparently our camp was set up nine or so months ago and they've been searching for supplies ever since. "Let me think for a second," Roy says in front of the group. "It's been twenty or so years since this outbreak started, there's not going to be many places that haven't already been ransacked more than a few times." Several people get down on one knee. "We've got a job to do men, we have to take care of the people who are remaining and take care of each other, now that means we have to search this entire area." He takes a few seconds to scan over the men. "Our top priority is to find William Marshall, he helped us get here and now we have to help him get back." With that said we set off to find William. It's a long and hot day of following in each other's footsteps. Vultures can be seen circling in the sky above. We come across the lower half of a human body. No sign of the other half. The little food that I had this morning exits the way it came in. The visual of the body is nauseating but the smell is even worse. Roy checks the body's pants pockets for any information or supplies. One pocket knife is all that is found. The stench lessens the further we move away from it but I still feel as if the smell is on me. "If we had the time and resources we would burn or bury the body but we need to push forward and hope that smell doesn't attract the infected" Roy says. It's a steep climb up the side of the mountain. The slightest hint of a trail is visible, grass, fallen limbs and pine cones have taken over most of it. We see another body just below the ridge. It's sitting upright against a tree with what looks to be a machete lying across it thighs. Everyone in the group squats down hoping to not be seen. "Let's wait here for a minute and see if anything moves" whispers Roy. So we wait, the hair on the back of my neck rises. I slowly turn my head away scanning the sloped hillside above us, afraid we may have just walked into some kind of trap. After a while Roy breaks the silence "okay Tom you're with me and Hector you take Josh and Alex and go on the right side." Everyone nods their heads and starts to walk down the side of the hill. I try and stay close to the others not knowing exactly what to do. As we approach we can start to tell that the person is a woman. Her brown hair is half covering her face. When we get within five feet of her she snaps awake and grabs the machete. "Wo, wo, wo" says Hector with one open palm towards her. "Stay away" she says pointing the machete at him. "It's all right" he says while sliding out the Firefly pendant from underneath his shirt. She takes a look at the rest of us while still holding up the machete. "Guys" Hector says while tapping on the pendant. The others start to show their pendants and I follow suit. "So what?" she says. "We're not going to hurt you; we're just looking for our friend, his name is William have you seen him?" With her weapon still raised she says "no I haven't". Hector continues "are you with anyone else?" She finally lowers the machete and says "I'm with my child and two men." She stands up and slides the machete into her belt. "Can you show us where they are?" asks Hector. Taking a deep breath, she lowers her shoulders and gives in. We follow her further down the mountain. A half a mile later we come upon a small red barn. Roy steps in front of the woman and grabs a hold of the barn door handle "I'll go in first" he says. Roy slightly opens the door on the left side and steps foot into the barn with his rifle raised. A brief moment later he waves everyone forward as he opens the door even wider. Inside sits four faces beaming with joy in being reunited with each other. It turns out the mother had led two infected away from her child while the men were off trying to hunt for food. She was able to take down one infected, the other infected was slower and somehow she was able to lose it in the forest. Meanwhile the two men came across William while he was skinning a squirrel.

When you're living with a group the good days seem to stand out even more than before. I had a mother and a couple of good friends before. But seeing these four new people join the group feels big. The sense of accomplishment in knowing that you probably just saved these people's lives is something that I haven't felt before. The little boy Hunter is only six years old and his smile becomes infectious in a good way. The mother Molly can't find an outdoor shower and then a bed fast enough. The two men Ben and Lamar are quickly integrated into the routine. Tina grabs me by the back of the arm, "I found some files for you, you can take a look at them in my office if you want." I turn my head to the left and look into her eyes, "sure that's sounds good." She takes a couple of seconds to look at Hunter who is entertaining some of the others. "When's the last time you saw a kid?" I ask her. Her eyes change as she walks away from me. Shaken a little I walk into her office and see the stack of files on her desk. A small note is placed on top of the files. "The key for the file cabinet is not working, these were all I could find, I did not go through all of them but I will find a way to open up that cabinet." A battle inside me begins. Anxiety starts to take hold; this nervous energy comes from the idea that I may find him or just find out more about him. My head tells me something different, that I'm trying to find a needle in a hay stack that there's no way I'll find Tommy. I open the first file, there's no picture just the name at the top "Thomas Howard." Age "22", sex "Male", height "5'8"". Down at the bottom of the page Cause of Death "self-inflicted gunshot wound." That idea hadn't really crossed my mind before, the fact that I would find out about him and that he would be dead. I believe he would be taller and older than this guy. I close the first file and plop it on her desk. Do I even want to know? Yeah I think I do. The second file has a photo, it's a small two by three-inch photo of a woman standing in front of a brick wall from the chest up. "Leslie Green" age "30", Cause of Death "infected". Her Firefly pendant is taped to the file. Apparently if you become some sort of legend they keep your pendant with your file. So future Fireflies can remember you and what you sacrificed for the group. Two more files of dead people and my head seems to be winning out. Then I get to the fifth file "Tom Granger" age "23", sex "Male", height "5'7"". At the bottom of the page it says "disappeared no know location." Palms sweating, heart beat increasing I shake my head. "I'm pretty sure it's not him" I say to myself. He wouldn't be five foot seven, I'm stupid to think I would ever find him. I close the file "it can't be him." The next file is a little heavier it must have a pendant. I open it up and my heart leaps. As plain as day their he is in the photo. The same two by three-inch photo in front of a brick wall. He looks younger then I remembered. "Thomas Young" age "24", I'm almost too afraid to look at the bottom of the page. "Left voluntarily empty handed believed to be in the Montana or possibly Texas." I rub my finger over his pendant, still in disbelief over finding his file.


	5. Chapter 5

Watering the crops took a long time. My mother wasn't a natural gardener, we were able to find a few books on the subject and started our own little backyard garden. The main reason why everything took so long was because we had to do it in quiet or at least as quiet as would could. So the water would come out in a weak stream as to not make too much noise which could alarm any infected that might be nearby. The land had to be hoed by hand. As I would eventually learn an ordinary garden hoe could take out an infected if need be. One time a single infected got into the yard and lost its footing on the uneven ground allowing my mother to smack it in the back of the head with that said hoe. The memory of having to carry that body out of the yard is about as unpleasant as the actual action was. The body was heavy and also I was only twelve at the time. Ours hands and fingers slowly ripped the skin off of it with every step unleashing a new stage of stench. That smell we feared would only attract others. Looking back on it I think it was a combination of fear, frustration and sheer tiredness that lead to the big mistake. That mistake being lighting the body on fire and then that body lighting a nearby fence and tree on fire attracting the before mentioned others. There was no putting the body in a dumpster and lighting it on fire. The dumpster had been overfilled for a decade. We were both exhausted from working in the garden. We had to get rid of the body otherwise it would attract infected or just stink the place out. The moving of the heavy body had taken up what energy we had left. So in a "screw it" moment we poured a little gas on him and lit him on fire. I took off back towards the yard with a frightened thought chugging through my mind. Hurry water hurry! I pleaded to the water hose that was spraying into the bucket. Who cares about the noise when the whole neighborhood could go up in flames. By the time I got back into the alley the neighbors fence was completely charred. There were no neighbors living there but that's not the point. The bucket of water only seemed to upset the fire. It wasn't long until some infected rounded the corner and my mother and I ran back into the backyard. Even though two infected were banging at the fence the sight of the fully grown tree ablaze was more terrifying. Smoke started to rise above its branches, inviting more horror to join in. It wasn't the fence pounding that broke my death stare at that tree no that was the sound of gun shots. A pickup flew down the road beside our house. Not long after that, more bodies appear. Some of them were leaving a trail of blood behind them. Soiled, half-ripped clothes dangled from their skin. A few clickers were sprinkled into the mix. More gunshots went off as I made my way to the backdoor while the infected started to take apart the fence. Inside the dim lit house with the door shut I focused on the outside noise. Waiting to hear some part of the house give way eventually letting them all in. The image of the burning tree came back into my mind every time I blinked. The gunshots got closer and closer. At that point I wasn't sure what to be more afraid of the infected or the people with the guns? The noise stopped. Then a knock at the backdoor. "Anyone alive in there?" A male voice said from the other side of the door. My mother and I looked at each other unsure of what to do. "We're going to have to break down the door if there's no response" the man continued. Cracks started to appear as they began to bang on the door. "We're in here!" I said figuring they were going to break down the door and find us anyway. "How many of you are there?" asked the voice from outside. Hesitating for a moment I replied "Two, just two." I could see the look of worry all over my mother's face. "Are either one of you infected?" he said with a southern accent. "No we're not" I said. "Well can you open the door then?" After a couple of deep breathes I started opening the door. "It's okay" he says while I am turning the door knob. "We're Fireflies."

In the door came three men. All of them had a gun hanging from their hip. "Hey kid I'm Tommy what's your name?" I looked up at him and nervously responded back "um, Alex." A slight smile came across his face "well nice to meet you Alex and I'm guessing this is you mom?" She stood a few feet back with her arms crossed "Yes I'm Carol." Anxiety mounted as the uneasiness continued. "You don't have to be afraid of us, I'm David and this little pipsqueak here is Louis." Louis gave a little wave but didn't say anything. "So" Tommy continued "how old are you Alex?" I looked back at my mother "fourteen right?" She nodded her head "yes he is fourteen, just turned that a couple of months ago." David turned to Tommy and said "can you believe Mark took that truck and left us?" Tommy turned to David "hey how about you go outside and check around, make sure no infected are still hanging about." David walked out giving Louis a little push on the shoulder before leaving. "Don't worry ma'am, I'm not here to recruit your kid" said Tommy. "You two are lucky that we found you" he continued. "Yes thank you" she replied. "You all right Louis, have you had enough of the Fireflies yet?" he said making Louis smile. "Almost" Louis replied. "We're not supposed to say anything bad about the Fireflies but when other people aren't around, me and Louis here, well we" Tommy stopped. He scratched his head for a couple of seconds. "Take my advice kid, stay away from the Fireflies and the Military as long as you can." Silence replaced anxiety while the four of us stood there. "Well I guess you're staying here" he said. My mother shook her head yes. "Take care of your mother Alex." He stuck out his hand. It hung there for a while before I realize what he was doing. I noticed his Firefly pendant hanging from his neck. As I shook his hand he said "you stay safe." Louis stepped out of the doorway followed by Tommy. We made eye contact as he closed the back door.


	6. Chapter 6

Walking into Tina's office I sit at a chair in front of her desk and wait for her to finish riffling through some papers. "I can't find anything in this mess, oh did you have any luck in your search?" she asks. "Actually yes it's right here" I hold up the file. "You're kidding" she says. "Yeah I know what are the odds right?" We stare at each other. "Well don't let anyone see that" she says while closing one of the desk drawers. "Do you mind if I keep it?" I ask. "That's probably not a good idea" she responds. Someone whistles outside and we stop to listen. The place falls silent. We look at each other and decide to take a peak outside to see what is going on. Five men are walking into the compound, the one in the middle holds up a hand and smiles. Roy meets him and shakes his hand. They speak to each other but I can't hear what they are saying. "I'll see what's going on" Tina says. I walk a few paces behind her. "Hello everyone!" the man says. "I'm going to need everyone to gather around we don't have much time." We all look at each other not knowing what is about to happen. After a few moments everyone has gathered together and we are waiting for the announcement to begin. "First things first" the man says. He takes off his ball cap and wipes the sweat from his brow revealing a receding hairline. "We don't normally do things this way but time is of the essence" he says while pacing to the left and right. "Roy can you stand beside me here." Roy straightens his back and stands beside him. The man clears his throat before continuing "we have some sad news to report." He scans the crowd for a moment. "Marlene is dead" several people gasp at the news. "There's more people there's more" he continues. "And Roy" he turns to Roy. "It looks like you are the new leader of the Fireflies." I turn to look at Tina, who is shaking her head in disbelief. "And finally" he says. "We're going to need all of you to pack up and move with us back to Utah." Roy steps towards the group "all right people, let's get this thing done and head out early tomorrow morning." The man places a hand on Roy's shoulder and continues to speak to the group "just in case you don't know you will be heading to the hospital there." The man turns towards Tina "and Tina we lost a couple of doctors there so we're really going to need you." She nods her head in agreement.

Our group of twenty sets off into the early morning light. Seeing all of us struggling to make our way silently through the forest is unnerving. Every other second someone is stepping on a twig or brushes alongside a low branch, which snaps back in to place with the leaves rattling loudly. The peaceful light blue sky above plays opposite of what's going on down below. Several of the men with guns have painted their faces in camouflage. The tension of the group is blended together by the fear of the unknown and the grunt work of walking for miles with everything that we have strapped on our backs. Tina voices her opinion as we settle down to have lunch, "I can't be the only here who thinks this is a bad idea." She looks around at the group, who are all sitting down eating what little food is left. Several people nod in agreement with her. "You guys couldn't find a truck or anything?" she asks the fighters. Roy steps up to her and whispers while putting one hand on her waist "could you not do this now?" She looks him in the eyes as he continues, "we need to stick together on this, this is more important than just us." He turns around and addresses the rest of the group "I know this is dangerous, who knows what could be walking around out here?" Most of the group stops eating and lifts their heads to listen. "Just because Marlene is gone doesn't mean that what we the Fireflies believe in and what we are trying to do cannot be accomplished." Tina returns to her spot with her head down. He continues "we have to be brave, we have to stick together, we have to do what is right."

The next morning, we come across an infected who is pinned underneath a log. In a way it seems to know what type of predicament that it's in, it isn't all that aggressive towards us. Fatigue is starting to set in for most of us. Several breaks are taken but the recovery for those of us who are suffering is proving to be less and less. A lack of food, soaring hot temperatures and the constant grip of fear wears people out both physically and emotionally. Several birds fly off in a hurry just up ahead. We aren't close enough to scare them away. Pressure rattles my eardrums for a second. One shot is fired, one of the fighters in front of us is taken off his feet. Blood splatters over the two other fighters. Our group scatters. Roy shouts to everyone "stick together." No one listens. I see a person in a military uniform coming over a small hill in the distance. More shots are fired. I try to keep calm, feeling my breaths coming in and out of me in less than a second. I have to back track, I'm now unaware of where anyone else from the group is. After several steps I start to see them. Their bodies lying on the ground. First two then three then four. It isn't soon before long that the military has us few survivors surrounded. Roy, Tina, several people from the settlement who I never learned their names, one Firefly fighter and myself. They force us on our knees. Several infected make their way to the scene but are soon taken care of. One of the military men steps forward, "Roy Jacobs and Tina Matthews, we've been expecting you." The short man says in a quickened pace. "Now you guys wouldn't be going to Utah would you?" Tina lifts one hand toward the man "why are you here?" He smirks "we just came from a St. Mary's Hospital, looks like someone made an awful mess of things." He walks up and down the line of us, "I guessing you heard that your leader is dead." The smirk goes off his face, "at the end of the day we both want the same thing, only you were keeping a very big secret from us." Roy chimes in "of course we were, why would we trust you?" The man takes a deep breath before continuing, "no, no, no, I doubt that even you Roy the new leader of the Fireflies knows about this." I look around hoping to find somewhere to escape. "You see apparently the Fireflies had the cure in their possession" he says with one hand on his hip. "But Marlene didn't trust the fireflies to take care of it oh no, she had to bring in someone from the outside." An older male from the settlement makes a break for it as soon as the military man turns away from us. Several seconds later one gunshot is fired and his body hitting the ground is all that is heard. "Nobody do anything stupid" Roy pleads to the group. "Why don't you just kill us?" Tina asks. "Well we can't kill you, doctors are hard to find these days" he says. His dark brown eyes stare a whole in me as he approaches. "Hand over the bag kid" he says to me with his hand out. I shake my head no. A deep pains runs across my face as he smacks his hand against it. I slowly remove the strap over my head and hand the bag over. "You see the problem is, is that there isn't much information about the so called 'cure'" he says while unzipping the bag. "According to the small amount of paperwork that we found, it's a young female with the codename 'Spitfire'." Tommy's file lands on the ground in plain sight of everyone. "And because 'the cure' was so secretive, we're going to have to figure out if any of you know anything about it" he says while bending over to pick up the file. "Luckily we caught a break at the hospital, not only were a lot of your men already dead when we got there but a very kind and willing Firefly was able to give us some important information" he says while looking over the file. His eyes gaze at me for a second before returning to the file. "And it looks like we got lucky again, you see your guy told us the name of the man who single-handily took down a whole group of Fireflies." He lets out a little chuckle. "The man who killed your doctors, killed your leader and stole the cure for mankind, a Mr. Joel Young." He turns around the file showing it to the group "and know we just found Mr. Thomas Young, siblings: one a brother Joel, possible locations, Montana or Texas." He closes the file, "we were just at a hydro-electric power plant in Montana not too long ago, maybe they'll know something there." He hands the file to the closest military person near him. "Only this time we'll make sure we'll bring enough people to get the job done." He bends down in order to look into Roy's eyes. "Marlene was dumb to think that the Fireflies alone could handle something as big as the cure." Roy reaches out and quickly grabs the knife from the man's hip sticking it into the man's left ribcage. The firefly fighter grabs the gun from the man's other hip and takes down the nearest soldier. The fight ensues, I grab the file from the dead solider and snatch my bag off the ground before taking off running. I try and stay as low to the ground as possible. One shot takes off some bark from the tree in front of me. I turn to see where the shot came from only to see Roy sticking a knife into a soldier's neck. My stomach drops to my knees. I watch the men fight each other. Roy ploughs through two more bodies before I catch my breath. I turn to my left and take off running going past tree after tree. I'm barely able to keep my footing on the uneven ground. I don't stop for anything I just keep running with the fear that turning around will mean certain death.


	7. Chapter 7

It's now been several days since I lost contact with the Fireflies. I've been heading north as much as possible. The silence during this journey has drawn my mind inward. The military guy's words keep playing in my head "we'll bring enough guys to get the job done." I keep seeing the folder falling out of my pack in slow motion. I've possibly lead the military and or the Fireflies directly to Tommy. My stomach growls as I take countless steps through this hot forest. Visibility is becoming worse as dark gray smoke begins to paint over the skyline. I eventually come across a stream, the water is ice cold. Tears roll down my cheeks as I sit down. After debating it for several hours I decide to take off the Firefly pendant and toss it into the creek. I watch as it slides over several pebbles before getting stuck on a rock after a few seconds it goes on a little further before getting stuck on another rock. I take my shoes and socks off before walking across the creek in my bare feet. It's quite possible that they are all dead. Waiting here is not really an option, so I put the socks and shoes back on and continue to make my way north getting closer and closer to Montana.

I know that sound. It can be confusing at first but after several screams it becomes pretty obvious. There's an infected inside a small gas station at the top of this hill. Of course the only place around here that might have some food is guarded by one of those things. A daydream of knocking down the door, taking down the infected and diving into a stash of food doesn't last long. Smoke can still be seen on the horizon behind me while more flowing water is up ahead. There can't only be bad guys left, can there? Surely there are still some good people left in this world. I pass a couple of small rusty buildings. While I'm inside the building I get maybe a couple of hours of sleep. I don't know really that sort of thing is hard to keep track of. Afterwards I walk along a two lane road. Staying off the actual road as much as possible. It's a bit of a steep climb. The hope is that I can find a small town. So that maybe I can figure out where I am. Wait a second, what was that? I stop in my tracks and listen. A couple of gusts of wind but nothing seems to come of it. I take a step before I hear it again. It's hard to tell what it is, a couple of quick noises and then nothing. Should I keep going or should I check it out? There's definitely something down there. I don't know how long I'm going to make it if I don't find something. Chances are something bad will find me if I go down there. I decide I'll check it out while staying as far away as possible. I stub my toe immediately on some rocks and they slide down the hillside. My chest tightens as I make my descent. I'm not hearing anything anymore but I decide to keep going. The rocks feel loose underneath my feet, each step is a location giveaway just waiting to happen. A quick glimpse of the back half of a dog is all that I see. Wringing my hands does nothing to calm the nerves. Standing behind a tree I look for the next tree to hide behind. It's a good twenty feet away, quick and fast or slow and steady I'm not sure how to make it to the next hiding spot. A squirrel drops down the branch above me and starts chirping away. A couple of dog barks close in on me. I run like a trapped animal, knowing there's no getting away. It isn't long until the dog has me pinned against a couple of boulders. The seconds tick slowly by as I wait for it to tear into me. Its teeth are long and white and its back is arced for strike. "Raja!" An arrowhead peaks out behind the nearest tree, then the bow being held by a hand. The dog puts his teeth away as the girl steps out of the shadows. She paces around the dog, arrow pulled tight aiming directly at me. "Drop your bag" she says. I take it off and hold it in my right hand. "Toss it this way" then she adds quickly "on the ground." I do what she says. The dog sniffs at the bag as she puts the bow around herself, pulling her ponytail out from underneath the bow. She snatches the bag and finds the file. A rock is up against my right foot. I couldn't take both of them. She tilts her head as her eyebrows furl in anger. "Who are you?" she asks while pulling out a switchblade. The dog returns to a striking position. "Why do you have this?" she asks referring to the open file in her hand. "I'm just trying to find him" I say half scared to death. "Why?" she asks. "Um" I think about telling her about how I meet him and how that chance encounter has made me want to grow up and be like him, but that would probably be too long winded. So I just say what comes to mind next, "to warn him." She gazes at Tommy's Firefly pendant for a few seconds. "Warn him of what?" she asks in a non-threating voice. I feel the tension ease up slightly "the military, the Fireflies, which ever one makes it to him first." She puts the file away and zips up the bag before tossing it around her shoulders. "Lift up your shirt" she says. So I do, "now spin around, you got any weapons on you?" she asks. "No" I reply. "Now your pants legs" she orders. I pull up the legs of my pants and push my socks down only revealing my hairy legs. "No weapon well that's dumb" she says. With bow in hand she leads me into the open field. "What's your name?" she asks. "Alex" I reply without feeling the need to ask her the same. "I'm Ellie and the dog's name is Raja, I'm going to take you to see Tommy and then they'll figure out what to do with you." I think to myself should I put my hands on my head? Maybe I shouldn't make any quick movements. An infected approaches, the thought of running comes to mind but they jump into action too quickly for me to do anything. The dog gets the infected's attention by running circles around it. She steadies an arrow and plants it directly into its head. "Don't move" she says before walking over and pulling the arrow out of the infected's skull.

We make it to a tall gate with several people posted up above. "Hey Ellie" yells one of the men on top. "This guy says he wants to see Tommy" she yells back. The man climbs down behind the gate out of sight from us. We wait several minutes before anything happens. Then suddenly the gate slowly opens and out walks a red headed guy followed by a longer hair blonde guy. It takes me several moments before I realize it's him. Ellie walks up to him and says something to him before giving him the file. She takes the dog and enters the gate. Tommy takes a quick breath that slightly tilts his head back. The red headed guy keeps a hand on the gun that is holstered on his waist. "This was a long time ago, where did you find this" Tommy says shaking the folder in the air. "I was in the Fireflies" I reply. "I'm sure you don't remember me" I add. "No you look to be too young, for us to be in the Fireflies at the same time" he says. "No" I respond. "Are there more coming?" he asks. "Yes" I answer hesitatingly. "I doubt that" the redhead guy says. "Those forest fires should slow them down a bit" he adds. "Yeah well he got through" Tommy adds. "I came here because you saved me and my mom a couple of years ago back in Starks, Colorado" I say. I continue with "you told me not to join the Fireflies." A small smile comes across his face. He responds, "that must have been near the end." Red spots suddenly cover his neck and chin. I watch as he kneels over me "hey kid". The redheaded guy grabs Tommy's arm and pulls him away towards the gate. Pressure vibrates my eardrums before everything goes black.


End file.
